Quote Originally Posted by northbayteky View Post
No, I have solar panels on my roof, it will be powered for free by the sun.
Not at night...
...and it's not free, you paid for those panels and the running cost is the amount that you would otherwise gain from selling to the grid.
Quote Originally Posted by northbayteky View Post
There's not a lot of coal here in California. There aren't any coal mines, it would have to be brought in by rail or truck. And that wind farm about 25 miles away in Rio Vista I'm sure provides a lot of the power for my area. So while your statement may be true for some areas of the nation, it's not true everywhere.
Don't forget electricity goes through massive interconnects. The surplus (if any) gets sold to other parts of the country and the excess demand gets covered from other sources.
And the total generation only covers 2/3 of the usage, so 1/3 is "imported".
And 60% of those 2/3 comes from burning gas.